Important Post-Care Tips To Follow After Getting Dental Implants
To get dental implants, you will have to undergo a minor surgery. During the actual placement of the implants, you won't feel any pain or discomfort since you will be given a mild anesthesia. After the procedure though and once you are out of your dentist's clinic, you will experience some minor discomforts and there are some important do's and don'ts you have to follow. Below are some key post care tips you have to follow after getting dental implants: • Do not touch or disturb the surgical wounds hours after the surgery. This means avoiding rinsing, spitting, and brushing your teeth. • It is common to experience some slight bleeding of the gums, oozing, or redness in the saliva hours and even a few days after the surgery. However, if you experience excessive bleeding, you can control this by gently rinsing or wiping any old clots from your mouth first. You can then place a gauze pad over the site of surgery and bite firmly with constant pressure for half an hour. You can repeat this again if you still some bleeding. Also, avoid consuming hot food and beverages and doing strenuous physical activities. You should also consult your dentist if the bleeding still doesn't subside.
• Once you feel the local anesthetic wearing off, take the prescribed pain medication. However, make sure you won't drive or operate any machinery if you've taken in strong doses of analgesics since you will feel groggy and this will also slow down your reflexes. Generally, any pain or discomfort you feel after the surgery will subside gradually each day. • It is also normal to observe some swelling around the mouth, cheeks, and side of the face, especially 2 to 3 days after the surgery. These are the body's normal reaction to surgery and subsequent healing. You can minimize the swelling by immediately applying ice packs to the affected area. Apply two small ice packs on both sides of the face where the surgery was performed. According to dental experts, the ice packs should be applied continuously for 20 minutes on and 5 minutes off. You can apply moist heat on the sides of the face 36 hours after the surgery to further reduce the size of the swelling. • Avoid being dehydrated after the surgery. Drink at least 5 to 6 glasses of water and other cold fluids every day using a glass and avoid using a straw since the sucking motion can cause more bleeding because it dislodges the blood clot. Avoid eating hard food. You can eat anything soft but do not chew on the side where you just had your dental implants. • Lastly, good oral hygiene is also critical to good healing. You may be prescribed an antibiotic mouth rinse by your dentist which you have to use the night after the surgery and the following days after. You can also gargle with lukewarm salt water rinses at least 4 to 5 times a day, especially after meals. When brushing your teeth, be gentle with brushing the surgical areas.